Catherine Hessling (born Andrée Madeleine Heuschling, 22 June 1900,
in Moronvilliers, Marne â€" 28 September 1979, in La
Celle-Saint-Cloud, Yvelines) was a French actress and the first wife
of film director Jean Renoir. Hessling appeared in 15, mostly silent,
films before retiring from the acting profession and withdrawing from
public life in the mid-1930s.Hessling, born in Champagne-Ardennes, had
sought refuge in Nice during World War I. Her paternal ancestors came
from Alsace but moved to Champagne-Ardennes when Alsace transferred to
Germany. In 1917, her beauty came to the attention of Henri Matisse,
who sent her to fellow artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir as he thought she
looked like a suitable Renoir subject. Hessling modelled, clothed and
nude, for Renoir until his death in December 1919. Renoir's second
son, Jean, fell in love with Hessling, and the couple married on 24
January 1920. Hessling gave birth to a son, Alain Renoir, on 31
October 1921.Jean Renoir had been planning a career in ceramic art but
decided instead to try his hand in the medium of film in the attempt,
he would later claim, to make Hessling a star. While both were
aficionados of American films, and Hessling copied fashions and
behaviour she saw on the screen, she had in fact never had any thought
or ambition to become an actress herself.Renoir produced his first
script, Catherine, in 1924. Albert Dieudonné would direct the film.
Renoir devised for Hessling a very stark, exaggerated look, with the
mouth and eyes a penetrating black against white facial make-up, which
was again used in his first full-length film The Whirlpool of Fate,
and the lavish and costly adaptation of Émile Zola's Nana (1926), in
which Hessling's performance has been described as characteristically
stylised and unsubtle, yet appropriate for this role.
in Moronvilliers, Marne â€" 28 September 1979, in La
Celle-Saint-Cloud, Yvelines) was a French actress and the first wife
of film director Jean Renoir. Hessling appeared in 15, mostly silent,
films before retiring from the acting profession and withdrawing from
public life in the mid-1930s.Hessling, born in Champagne-Ardennes, had
sought refuge in Nice during World War I. Her paternal ancestors came
from Alsace but moved to Champagne-Ardennes when Alsace transferred to
Germany. In 1917, her beauty came to the attention of Henri Matisse,
who sent her to fellow artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir as he thought she
looked like a suitable Renoir subject. Hessling modelled, clothed and
nude, for Renoir until his death in December 1919. Renoir's second
son, Jean, fell in love with Hessling, and the couple married on 24
January 1920. Hessling gave birth to a son, Alain Renoir, on 31
October 1921.Jean Renoir had been planning a career in ceramic art but
decided instead to try his hand in the medium of film in the attempt,
he would later claim, to make Hessling a star. While both were
aficionados of American films, and Hessling copied fashions and
behaviour she saw on the screen, she had in fact never had any thought
or ambition to become an actress herself.Renoir produced his first
script, Catherine, in 1924. Albert Dieudonné would direct the film.
Renoir devised for Hessling a very stark, exaggerated look, with the
mouth and eyes a penetrating black against white facial make-up, which
was again used in his first full-length film The Whirlpool of Fate,
and the lavish and costly adaptation of Émile Zola's Nana (1926), in
which Hessling's performance has been described as characteristically
stylised and unsubtle, yet appropriate for this role.
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